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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

I hesitated whether or not to go and I came back with a euphoric feeling.

It's been a long time since I remember I felt this way.

I went to the exposition mainly to see the famous Kitchen of Lisa Lou.

Can you imagine yourself, especially if you are a beadworker, waking up every day to your project, gluing beads one by one, a bead after bead from giant bags of bugle beads, during 5 years???? 5 years! It's 365*5= 1825 days!

Being absolutely swallown into your project, not being influenced of the bad critics and feedbacks of other people, keep on till the last bead to finish such a tremendous project?

Waking up to a new day - when you are not getting payed and you do not know how you are going to eat and with what? I think it's a mystery, not talking about how handling the renting and other day to day expenses.

I am totally full of fear and appreciation to such a strong belief in self or belief to death. It is exceptional and to be admired. Not to say, that there is a thought behind every object, the entire concept, the cynical remarks about the "good suburban woman and wife" and so on.

I was surprised that the major part of the kitchen is hand-glued and not beaded (=weaved with thread). Additionally, most of the Kitchen (I would say at least 95%) is done with bugle beads and not the usual round ones. Maybe the grill grid with the cherry pie, covered in pink is beaded with thread (and also other objects). An interesting detail about this pie, is that there is a book, of course totally covered with beads, open on the page with the appropriate recipe of the cherry pie, all written with beads :-)

The sink was said to be inspired from the "Starry Night" by Vincent Van Goch.

There is a motif of melamine /wood imitation on the furniture of the Kitchen, which is also an homage for an artist which I unfortunately don't recall the name.

Many of the objects are true objects, such as the fridge and the stove. However, the towel, map and curtains are made out of Papier-mâché covered with hand glued beads.

Her result is a pleasure to the eye, or as Svetlana Eltsova likes to say, it's an eye candy.

One more thing regarding the kitchen, is that it was laying in boxes in the private collection of Peter Norton (the same Norton of the ANtiVirus). He wouldn't agree the "Kitchen" to be moved because of the high sensitivity of the objects. I still don't know how the Israel Museum succeeded to convince him to borrow it for the exposition (if anyone knows, please tell me :-) ), but he finally agreed and the kitchem arrived to Israel in 24 boxes, everything well wrapped.

In the exposition, there were other very interesting objects:

Tara Donovan Wooden toothpicks cube. Susan Landau explained us how it was reproduced in the museum based on the artist instructions. Giant amount of Mixed toothpicks pressed densely in a cube (5 faces), layer after layer and when completely filled, the screws were released and the wooden faces fell down. A toothpick cube - without any glue, stood on the floor!

Ron MueckTwo old women. So realistic, but only 80 cm height. A genius work, that doesn't omit any details, the wedding ring, the face and hand wrinkles, the pantyhose creases, the small worn out shoes and coats, the dimple next to the eyebrow, the small moustache, the typical haircut. By the way, we were told that the hair was transplanted one by one in a silicon-fiberglass mold over the clay sculpture, which is then painted so realistically.

Steve Wolfe's Cartons. Everything from scratch, manually painted and imprinted in special techniques, formed from cardboard or wood. As Magritte wrote "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" (or "this is not a pipe"), so "this is not cartons nor books".

Malaysian Ceremonial dance jacket (sape manik). Called Kenyah beadwork (not to confuse with the African "Kenia" country). It is a netting very similar if not identical to netting used by Russian beadworkers. Check p.56-57 in Valerie Hector's Book "The art of Beadwork", to see similar Dayak Kaletau (humanlike figures).

Miniature Jewish handwriting of "Shir Hashirim" chapters, as a Succoth ornament, on an egg, as well as other miniature books and microcaligraphics.

Chinese “Devil’s Work” ivory ball. This is absolutely one of the most spectacular and mysterious things I have ever seen. It is a Chinese Hand Carved Ivory Ball in Balls Puzzle which contains 14 carved balls within balls. I was sure there is a trick and somewhere I could find where it was glued, but NO! This is made of ONE piece of ivory, sort of "drilled" with special tools (ancient ones) to form a small ball. Then, a bigger ball above him, till you reach the last exterior one, which is said to be the most intricate and most difficult to make. I didn't completely understood how it is done, it looks like someone creates balls as an internal surgery in the dark, really as a blind and formed virtuously, with deep concentration and mathematical understanding/intuition a fabulous lace texture. This was for me the most striking object and I still wander how long it took to make it. In this context, we have the beaded balls of Judy Walker "Beaded Sphere", only that there it's done by making one small bead , then inserting it while making a bigger one and so on (and not vice versa as in the Chinese devil ball). There is also Ana Gautier glass ball in balls necklace that I saw recently in the Yaniv Glass Gallery in Tel Aviv, but I also guess she prepared first the most interior one and created the others above. Unfortunately, there is no picture to this necklace that I can address you to (unless you want to see it in the gallery).

I arrived to the exposition an hr before the "gallery conversation" (guided tour) began, held by Susan Landau, the curator of "Bizarre Perfection". At its end, I was filled with fascination! I was so enriched with interesting details and stories, I just couldn't ask more.

What is so interesting in this exposition is all the surprises you detect and discover (or not) within the virtuously/geniusly made pieces. You may go next to a piece and don't notice anything special - but here you are wrong! Each piece has its secret. One is done with thousands of enamel micromosaics and weights 300 Kg but looks like a normal oil painting, one is done with million of beads, but looks as a kitchen and another is embroidered panels as if painted with a Japanese brush with all the texture and color nuances, you wouldn't even notice it's embroidered.

It's been a while that I admire her work and I dreamt to fly to the USA one day, to see, among others, her extraordinary beadwork art creations. I couldn't believe while I heard from beadworker friends that the kitchenis going to be exposed in the Israel Museum. That was so exciting! [I may sound a bit over enthusiastic, I know ;-) ]

All the planning and concept to think about for such a project, can you imagine what a self invest and devotion? I checked closely one of the Kitchen wall tiles. You could see the work is so accurate. I didn't notice a hole. All the holes were filled with size 11 round beads or bugles leftovers (I think it is leftovers because if Liza lou treated each bugle bead as a mosaic stone and cut it with special tools, it would have taken her 15 years and not 5, but I may be wrong). The flooring tiles were shining and sparkling. She got this effect, not only by using the bugle beads which are very shiny, but also by making circles aside circles in the bead mosaics (this is also an homage to a minimalistic artist that I don't recall the name). What a patience? She is surely a very special person.

Friday, December 19, 2008

The sweetheart flower is done following the instructions in the "Crochet Bouquet" book, p.93-94.The bee is something I came up with, though I decided finally to leave the small sweetheart rose as is, without anything in the middle.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

I did the Iris folding based on a pattern of "An Iris for Sarah" designed by Claire in 2003, but I can't find the link to it anymore. This greeting card is meant for Omer's birthday, I hope he will like it. To be honest, it took hrs and I am quiet disappointed of the result. What do you say?

Unfortunately, I can't find the link for this greeting card as well. I did it (8-9.6.07) for Nomnom wedding's last year.

16.5.09Thanks to Beadonna, I can address you to find the links to this greeting card's wedding dress and tuxedo. Additionnaly, Beadonna sent a great link for Origami Wedding, where you can find another version to an Origami bride and groom and other interesting stuff such as this beautiful and complex diamond or crane rings. Thank you Beadonna!

Finally, this baby carriage was my first Iris folding card I made on 27.5.07. You will find the instructions here.

At last, here is a very nice Iris folding site with lots of free patterns:http://www.iris-folding.com/freepatterns.html

Friday, December 12, 2008

I have started crocheting today. I sat on the couch with two books one upon the other, The first was Sue Whiting' s book"The Crochet Bible" and the second one was SuzannThomson's "Crochet Bouquet" book. A lot of trial and error, I got to make those flowers which are so geniusly fantastic. It make me feels I want to make more and more of them! Maybe not as Suzan's flowering cap but still :-)

After I saw Varda crochet flowers - it was a must for me to get the book, even if I didn't know crochet. I still have a lot of mistakes and I am sure I have plenty of new things to learn but this is a real good feeling to have started.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Varda and myself went today to have some beady fun day, having some shopping in Tel-aviv bead stores and ending in a visit to the Yaniv Glass Gallery, where we could see in real the legendary lampwork beads made by Sarah Hornik.The small expo is called: "Crazy little things". Not much beads were exposed and the beads are very nice - some of them amazing. However, we were a bit disappointed. The reason, that I suspected of before going, is that Sarah knows to picture so well her beads, with the proper light - that when you see them in a regular light or no special light, they loose a lot from their charm. It's not that they are not wooow, they are still amazing, but not as they appear in her blog or site. I know, it's a matter of light , maybe someone could have a start up by coupling internal light into a lampwork bead, wouldn't that be fantastic?

In a small room, we could find other glass treasures. I especially liked the glass works of Ana Gautier. I still wonder about her name, I think she is a Russian-Israeli but the family name is so French?! Nevermind, she has a very special glass technique, producing a net of glass spaghetti. I fell in love with her earrings, though I would gladly have them in an opaque colour. If I could efford it, I would buy her ball in balls necklace - which is so special! See her at work (image 2 of 14), working on a common project with Ayala Serfaty.

Finally, I saw for the first time in reality, the masterpieces lampwork necklaces of Rachel Goldreich (or Rachelle). I was left with open mouse. What joy, spring and colours in her work. Additionally, she is such a modest and kind person.

At last, that was the story of our journey, we came back home full of beads from all the year's end sales and now I need to buy new boxes to arrange them :-[

Sunday, November 30, 2008

At the beginning of November I saw the Teapot that Mariposas made and I immediately fell in love with it. I waited impatiently to the B&B magazine to arrive and from there on, I had a great time spending with this wonderful teapot, geniusly designed by Diane Fitzgerald (B&B December 2008, Issue 88, "Time for teapots", p.113-116). What's amusing, is that Mariposas fell in love too and also posted today her second beautiful teapot, only that this time it is also accompanied with all its set, cups, milk bottle, cookies etc... Check it!The pattern of the Iris and flowers popped so naturally from the teapot and I think much of the color style is influenced from my good beader friend Pnina, but also Varda. The spiral is the Magatama spiral by Laura McCabe, with a small variation.I had to figure out all the connections, time will say if it's comfortable or not to wear...

Thursday, November 6, 2008

I had today an intensive and very fun day with my beaders friends and later on also with my best highschool friend.

My friend Pnina taught me how to do Tatting with a needle and the needles from the USA are already on the way. We went to a nice restaurant and met a very special woman who unveiled to us all crochet essentials! I don't know crochet yet (except the crochet beaded spiral) but the best would be to learn it from someone who really knows it well. (An additional craft in my "to do" list or more accurately "to learn" list...).

Back to the tatting technique, I find it a bit too "antique" for me, but I think that using colourful threads can make fabulous jewelry out of it.

I am impatient to practice it. Meanwhile, I tried to use the shuttle I had bought some time ago, but it is a bit complicated and I am not sure I got it right...

Thursday, October 16, 2008

After a while that I haven't found the muse to bead, I asked Omer to choose for me a beautiful flower so that I can try to bead it. He looked in his flower's catalog and found two flowers. One of them was Linum grandiflorum. I immediately searched for better pictures on the net and felt through google on the flickr album of Philip Bouchardwith this amazing macro picture:

you can click on the picture to see more of his wonderful photographs or click this link.

Thank you Philip for kindly allowing me to put your picture on my blog.I got the muse and the inspiration to come up with a flower similar to the Scarlet flax flower (פשתה גדולה):

to which I beaded also a leaf:

But since the leaf didn't suit for a ring, I just altered to make what you see below: Thank you Omer and Philip for your inspiration and giving me a good reason to touch the beads again :-)

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

On the 9.9.08 I got a very nice present from one of my e-beader friends - Claudia (from "Le gioie di Happyland"). I only now find the time to pass the award on. So first, I want to thank you Claudia! To receive this award from you is a real real honor. If you weren't to give me this award, you would have appeared in the list below ;-) but I don't know if the rules tolerates duplications.

So, let me introduce you Claudia if you don't know her yet. Very talented and nice beader artist whose husband takes the magnificent photos you will see on her blog. Claudia creates beaded jewelry and objects in Italy and also teaches beadwork. She has devoted her blog to present her creations as well as her students' creations. For me, her site is "heaven in live" since it is a place where I can practice my Italian as well as enjoying the magnificent creations presented there. Do visit:

Monday, October 13, 2008

I didn't count exactly, but I guess I unpicked today and yesterday about 25-40 initiated beadworks.I then arranged all the beads back to their boxes and felt quiet satisfied to have a "Tabula Rasa". It is essential for me to clean the desk in able to have the head clean and leave new space for creativity.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

On a nice journey to Ramot Menashe, we came across this magnificent giant pyramidal Cupressus (ברוש), apparently showing a special mixed phenotype.Later on, we spent some time eating tasty but tiny Rhamnus fruits (אשחר). Which picture do you prefer?

Monday, October 6, 2008

Remember my orpheline Isalala Cabochon (designed by Pencio)? Thanks to my dear aunt Pierrette, it has found a new home: the round lace bracelet designed by the dear talented artist Sandra D. Halpenny.How was this connection made? I simply showed Pierrette my jewel boxes and she liked the Isalala. When we arrived to the box of my first beaded jewels, we found the round lace bracelets that I did a long time ago. It looked good together and what a joy to finally close a circle! I remade a new bracelet in almost the same colours as about a year ago, only that this time I used the fireline thread and also a magnetic clasp. I attached the cabochon to the lace and Voilalala la Isalandra!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Flower power (which has become an epidemyattack in the French and Israeli beading forum) is a design of Holle Randy. Her site and works are of the prettiest I know. Also her kids Tale, Lotta and Till like beading - so that means something about the person, doesn't it?!